Conviction

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day, fully aware of the blessings that abound in your life! What a beautiful morning! I can hear birds chirping outside, I can hear the city slowly waking up (the rest of the Haslam household appears to be a long way from this point!) and I am in the comfort of air conditioning...not yet hit in the face by what will be 111 degrees today!

This week has been interesting. Several different things have come at me...each one I thought would be what "Happy Friday" would be about. As I continued to ponder all this, talk with God it suddenly hit me - love when I actually slow down, shut up and listen to the Holy Spirit - that the totality of all these things is the "Happy Friday." So here goes:

• On Tuesday I was driving down the road listening to the radio and the song "The Words I Would Say" by the Sidewalk Prophets was on. I was singing along - it wasn't good! - and when I sang the course, there was this incredible feeling, sense of peace in my spirit. Here are the words that spoke so strongly to my spirit...maybe they will speak to yours as well:

Be strong in the Lord and,
Never give up hope,
You're going to do great things,
I already know,
God's got His hand on you so,
Don't live life in fear,
Forgive and forget,
But don't forget why you're here,
Take your time and pray,
These are the words I would say,

The line that spoke to my heart so powerfully, the line that keeps drawing my eyes to it even now is, "Be strong in the Lord." Yes, that I would live today in the Lord's strength, not mine...oh please, not mine!

• So then on Wednesday morning I am on Twitter, sending out a thought of the day, and I see where Joyce Meyer has tweeted this scripture:

"Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." - Proverbs 4:23

Again my Spirit leaps. Yes Lord, I am listening. I don't fully understand it, I will think about this scripture, ponder it, over the next 3 days. When negative thoughts, ideas try to creep into my mind my Spirit reminds me of the truth of God's word.

• So I am getting old and I don't remember which morning I came across this quote - it was somewhere between Monday - Wednesday and no, that does not mean it was on Tuesday!

"I would rather live my life as if there is a God and die to find out there isn't, than live my life as if there isn't and die to find out there is." - Albert Camus

Said it before and I will say it again and again; I don't have enough faith to not have faith in God, to try to do this life in my own knowledge, wisdom, strength & power. I am way to aware of my failures, short-comings, inadequacies, etc. (I appreciate you all not pointing them out!) to think I can lead my life, my family. I realize some reading this might not believe what I believe and that is o.k. It doesn't change what I think of you, how I feel about you and I certainly respect you and your right to believe what you believe. I am simply testifying to what I have found to be true in my life.

• On Wednesday I went to lunch with a dear friend. God brought us together about 3 years ago. He is 65-years old, he possess an incredibly sweet spirit and my life is blessed richly each time we are together. Funny thing is he thinks God gave me to him, that God uses me to bless his life...poor, misguided soul! :)

As we were talking he asks me, "where does your conviction come from?" I am confused, I don't know what he is talking about. I ask him what he means. He states that one of the things that has always struck him about me is the strong sense of conviction I possess. He tells me it is rare, that not many people have this characteristic. I search my heart and mind. I tell him how I always had the desire to pursue the Lord, how a friend and I would walk to church when we were little boys. I share the story of being a boy, I think I was 11 or 12-years old, and getting caught in a lie. I explain how I didn't like how that felt in my heart, in my Spirit. How since that time, above all else, my desire is to listen to my Spirit. You see, I have found that while I can tolerate people thinking I am crazy, not agreeing with me, I can't tolerate not having peace in my Spirit. As I have grown and learned I now realize that it wasn't me so much pursuing the Lord as a boy but the Lord pursuing me. That the reason my spirit felt restless when I lied was because this was the Lord speaking to me, leading me, guiding me and ultimately, providing protection for me. I have found that when I listen to my Spirit there is great safety, great peace in spite of the storms that may swirl around me. From that time as a boy to this day as a man, the Lord has dealt with me through my Spirit about many things; from the way I talk (lying, gossip, swearing) to the way I act (love one another, serve others) to the way I work (do all things as working for the Lord, not man) to how I behave socially (drinking, looking at women, controlling anger), etc. Each time, emblazened in my heart, mind was the moment I had violated my Spirit, when everything within me told me this was wrong, that I had to change, that this was not the way I am supposed to live my life. Then, and only then, when I acted upon the conviction of my Spirit, did I find peace.

There are a couple of thoughts I want to share with you as I encourage you to follow the convictions of your Spirit:
1. Following the convictions of your Spirit will sometimes require you to walk a lonely road (physically) . I can assure you however that the peace you will feel within your Spirit is "a peace that goes beyond understanding." You see Friends, we live in a lost, broken world. We are all trying to figure it out, everyone is searching for joy, peace, happiness. Some look to a bottle, some look to drugs, some look to a person - the list goes on and on - and often times they will ridicule you, make fun of you, etc. if you do not pursue what they pursue. Again, I can only testify to what I know. I have never regretted listening to my Spirit and there are many regrets, long ago placed before the Lord and forgiven, when I didn't.
2. Closely tied to my first point, please don't judge, hold to your Spirits leading, others. This is neither biblical nor right. We are all on a long road, a journey of life. Some do not believe in God and those who do are in different stages of their growth with God. I remember a time when I could speak entire paragraphs almost exclusively with the "F" word...and it made sense! I also remember explicitly clear the day the Lord convicted my Spirit about it. While I can politely, respectfully, non-judgementally ask others to be respectful of others, I have no right to stand in judgement of another. This, the judgement of others, trying to hold them to our standards, has given Jesus a bad name to many and turned millions away from the "church." When I read my bible I find that Jesus met people where they were at, He stood strong in His convictions however He loved them unconditionally. This Friends, I believe, is our model.

Wow, sorry this got so long. My final thought, question, challenge is this: who will we pay rent to today? Will we be led by the beliefs, the convictions of our Spirits or will will be led by the beliefs, the convictions of the world? Each of us will make a choice, each of us will be left to deal with the consequences of those choices.

Please let me know if there is ever anything I can do for you or your families.

Have a great day, an awesome weekend and please cherish your precious families and friends!

Kev

Fear, Choices & Perspective

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day and an awesome week coming to a close for you!

This morning I am going to share a few different things with you. First I would like to share some excerpts from "Fearless: Imagine Your Life Without Fear" by Max Lucado and let them speak to your heart, let your spirit instruct you, as they will. I started reading this book this week and want to share some of Chapter 1, "Why Are We Afraid?"

• Oversize and rude, fear is unwilling to share the heart with happiness. Happiness complies and leaves. Do you ever see the two together? Can one be happy and afraid at the same time? Clear thinking and afraid? Confident and afraid? Merciful and afraid? No.
• Fear never wrote a symphony or poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or a business. Courage did that. Faith did that. People who refused to consult or cower to their timidities did that. But fear itself? Fear herds us into a prison and slams the door.
• Getting on board with Christ can mean getting soaked with Christ. Disciples can expect rough seas and stout winds. "In the world you will [not 'might', 'may', or 'could'] have tribulation" (John 16:33).
• It's not the absence of storms that sets us apart. It's whom we discover in the storm: an unstirred Christ.
• They do not ask about Jesus' strength: "Can you still the storm?" His knowledge: "Are you aware of the storm?" Or his know-how: "Do you have any experience with storms?" But rather, they raise doubts about Jesus' character: "Do you not care..."
• Fear does this. Fear corrodes our confidence in God's goodness.
• Fear unleashes a swarm of doubts, anger-stirring doubts.
• And it [fear] turns us into control freaks.
• Fear, at its center, is a perceived loss of control. When life spins wildly, we grab for a component of life we can manage: our diet, the tidiness of a house, the armrest of a plane, or, in many cases, people. The more insecure we feel, the meaner we become.
• Fear releases the tyrant within.
• Fear creates a form of spiritual amnesia. It dulls our miracle memory. It makes us forget what Jesus has done and how good God is.
• When fear shapes our lives, safety becomes our god. When safety becomes our god, we worship the risk-free life. Can the safety lover do anything great? Can the risk-adverse accomplish noble deeds? For God? For others? No. The fear-filled cannot love deeply. Love is risky. They cannot give to the poor. Benevolence has no guarantee of return. The fear-filled cannot dream wildly. What if their dreams sputter and fall from the sky? The worship of safety emasculates greatness. No wonder Jesus wages such a war against fear.
• His [Jesus'] most common command emerges from the "fear not" genre.
• The one statement he made more than any other was this: don't be afraid.
• Fear itself is not a sin. But it can lead to sin.
• If we medicate fear with angry outbursts, drinking binges, sullen withdrawals, self-starvation, or viselike control, we exclude god from the solution and exacerbate the problem.
• Fear may fill our world, but it doesn't have to fill our hearts.

Pretty powerful stuff, huh? I would strongly recommend this book to all of you and I would implore you, beg you, to let the last bullet truly speak to you: "Fear may fill our world, but it doesn't have to fill our hearts.

My Beautiful Bride and I were having a conversation this week that again brought to light the fact that we have choices, that we make decisions, and that every choice/decision has a consequence or a set of consequences. The part that really struck me as I thought about our conversation was how we will sometimes make a decision, not fully commit to it and how we are then trapped in a very awkward place. If I choose "A" (whatever "A" may be) over "B" (whatever it may be) but don't commit fully to "A" I really have neither. I don't allow myself to grow fully in "A", to embrace "A", to cherish "A" and I don't have "B" either because I didn't choose it...even if the separation is only physical. Think about it and I believe you will find it true. I am left wondering how many of us treat our lives, our marriages, our kids, our jobs, etc. this way.

Last night, after the Miami Heat won the NBA Finals, I was watching the post-game press conferences. LeBron James was asked, in part, what he has learned, how he has grown, as a man in the past year. Paraphrasing here, he said "that you can't control what others say and think about you. That what matters is what you think about yourself, what the one's you love think." I would like to encourage you to let that one speak to your heart as well.

Please let me know if there is ever anything I can do for any of you or your families.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families.

Kev

The Move

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day on this beautiful Friday morning! Early morning is such a special time; everything is new, fresh, everyone is waking up, everything is coming to life and birds are bringing in the new day with joyful chirps. I love the morning...there is so much hope & promise found in it! 

This morning I wanted to share a few thoughts, ideas, rhetorical questions, observations, etc. from the Haslam family move this past weekend - we "officially" moved last weekend however if you have ever moved you know that this started about 3 weeks ago and continues today!

• How did we get so much stuff? Secretly you wonder if you are a hoarder!
• Friends are a such a blessing! I am not talking about helping pack, helping carry all the stuff up and down stairs, loading the truck, unloading the truck, etc. though that is certainly a great blessing and something the Haslam 5 is extremely grateful for. No, what I am referring to is the texts, the phone calls, to just check in, to see how you are doing, to let you know that they are thinking about you. THIS really spoke to our hearts. I am reminded that stuff is stuff however it is the people who we are blessed, honored & privileged to do life with every day - our family, friends & even those who will only enter our lives for a brief moment in time - that make life worth living. They, the people, are our purpose, our calling.
• Don't assume that when your 16-year old son opens up the back of the U-Haul truck that he opened it all the way! Sure, it seems logical to you that he would have opened it all the way however this is not necessarily the case! And when the sweat, meets the open wound that you now have on your head, it stings but it is not fatal and besides, if you sit there and talk about it, the truck is not getting loaded.
• So it is 106 degrees outside, you have walked up and down the 13 steps that were at your home who knows how many times loading the truck, you have slept about 8 hours in the last 3 days, you have walked up and down the 18 stairs at your new apartment what seems like more times than you walked up and down stairs loading the truck, you are exhausted, whinny and feeling sorry for yourself (if nothing else, at least I am honest!). Suddenly your Beautiful Bride - you know, the one that God gave you as a gift. The one you have the privilege and responsibility of loving, honoring, protecting, leading, guiding - looks at you and you see the pain in her eyes. Her spirit is reaching out to yours, her heart crying out to yours, letting you know that she is hurting, she is tired, she is frustrated, she needs you to be strong for her. In that moment your wants, needs, complaints, etc. don't matter any more. In that instant you see life - all of it - in a completely different light. You are thankful that God has kicked you in the rear, made you aware of your source of strength, your responsibility and you cry out to Him to lead this precious family through you.
• How did dust get there?!?!
• Our kids - you know, the one's that we are blessed, honored & privileged to love, honor, protect, lead & guide - really are incredible. You can talk to them, explain what needs to be done - talk to them the way you would want them to talk to you! -  and they really will rise up and do incredible things! I watched a 16-year old boy completely change his attitude and effort from the Friday load to the Saturday unload, reload and unload. It was incredible! Before my very eyes I had the honor & privilege of watching a boy take steps to become a man, to think outside himself, to serve his family...Wow!!
• Why did we get an apartment on the 2nd floor? Why did we keep that?!?! (this question repeated itself several times so you can pretty much fill in the blank with anything you would like!)
• It touches your heart in a way that is difficult to explain when you arrive at Grandma & Grandpa's at 11:00 p.m. Friday to find that your 7-year old has stayed up to wait for you, that he tells you over and over again that he thought about you all day long, that he missed you and then he continues to hug & kiss you over and over and over....You hope that you can love like he loves, that you would be what he is, that you would have the strength, ability & courage to make others feel the way he makes you feel.
• Why do I have so many shoes?!?! Seriously?!?! I only wear one pair at a time and, for the most part, I wear the same 2 or 3 pairs all the time. Just another box to carry up and down the stairs!
• The physical structure does not make the home...it is the people within the physical structure that make the home. It is the love we have for them, the relationships we have with them, the things we do together, the memories we create that make the physical structure the home. Your home is found in your heart and the joining of your heart to the hearts of those who you are blessed, honored & privileged to have in your life. 
• Sleep is good!!! It is even better when you and your 3 Tender Warriors climb into your bed, turn on Sportscenter and fall asleep within seconds, together. You wake up the next morning, feeling refreshed and you realize that your home is coming together nicely.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you or your families - if you need help moving, please give me a week or two!!

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families.

Kev

Purpose

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day and an awesome week coming to a close for you! This is going to be a great, great day Friends...I can just feel it!

This morning the burden on my heart is something I touched on just a couple of weeks ago and yet, it continues to gnaw at me. I would like to briefly put this into context for you:

• Last week I met with a great friend, a great mentor. She is what society would define as highly successful and yet she finds herself in that awkward season of life when she is trying to decide what to do with her life. She knows she is a great teacher, she knows that she is a great mentor and there is a soft, distant call in her heart to do consulting work. For some reason she hasn't, she can't. Instead she keeps working at a job that doesn't bring complete fulfilment, complete peace. She is excellent at what she does and yet there is still an emptiness.
• As a college football coach and athletic director I have talked to thousands of young men and women embarking on their life journey. More often than not, when talking about life purposes, goals and plans the conversation would go like this; "I am majoring in (whatever) so I can get a job doing (whatever) however what I have always really wanted to do is (fill in the blank with the purpose, the dream that will, far to often, go unfulfilled).
• Think about it; how many people have you met that are working at a job, doing things with their life, that bring them no peace, no fulfillment, no satisfaction and yet they continue to do it day after day, month after month, year after year. They are living productive lives as members of society and yet sadly, they have not truly come alive.

I want to share a great quote with you that I think might hold some of the secret as to why many of us, perhaps most of us, don't pursue the cry of our spirits - the dreams that have been placed within our hearts:
"Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very things." - G.M. Trevelyn

I want to approach this from a few of different angles:
1. As parents, caregivers we impart our values, thoughts, ideas, etc. on the precious spirits with whom we are given the honor and privilege of leading, guiding, protecting. Our values, thoughts and ideas are shaped by our life experiences and are impacted by our own personal fears, hang-ups, etc. Driven from a heart of love - truly, harm is not intended - we want what is best for our kids, those with whom we are given the privilege of leading, guiding and protecting, and yet, it can be us - the parent, the caregiver - who gets in the way. I believe our real purpose as parents, caregivers is to help these precious spirits find their purpose, to encourage them to pursue their dreams, to pursue the burdens of their hearts...not make them pay rent to the worries, fears, hang-ups of our lives.
2. Some of us, though we may be 30, 40, 50, 60, 70...are stuck at the point of "young person." You see, the moment that someone who we love, respect tells us that the dream we have is dumb or that a goal that we want to accomplish is impossible - if we let it take root in our heart - our growth stops. We are still the 5-year old girl who dreams of becoming a doctor so she can find the cure for cancer or the 6-year old boy who dreams of traveling around the world teaching leadership to those in impoverished countries on the inside while on the outside we serve as administrative assistants or accountants (I am not saying these are bad professions to pursue...so long as that is the dream of your heart!). You see these people all the time. They are the one's who are working jobs, often highly successful in what they do and yet, when you talk to them, they will tell you what they have always dreamed of doing, of becoming. Their face lights up, you can feel the passion. You see Friends, our purpose will continue to call to us, regardless of whether we ever, ultimately heed it's call.
3. Who told you that you are not smart enough? Who told you that something cannot be done? Who told you that you would fail? Who told you it is not worth the risk? The questions could go on and on. While I have no doubt these people really do love you and you greatly love and respect them...this is a part of what makes this all so hard. The truth is that you are created for a purpose, there is a dream, a goal that you have in your heart that you are perfectly equipped to accomplish...you truly lack nothing. The great hindrance often times is fear. We don't know how to do something so we don't. We don't want to fail so we don't attempt it. While we don't have success we don't have failure either. I wonder how many great business we would have today, how many diseases would be cured, how many great thoughts, ideas would have grown to fruition in action, if we did not pay rent to fear, if we did not let it control our lives and instead allowed the fulfillment of our purposes to control our lives.

I want to share the lyrics from a song and a couple of more quotes with you. Please let them speak to your heart as they will:

• Lyrics from the song "What Faith Can Do" by Kutless

It doesn't matter what you've heard

Impossible is not a word

It's just a reason for someone not to try

Everybody's scared to death

When they decide to take that step

Out on the water

It'll be alright

Life is so much more

Than what your eyes are seeing

You will find your way

If you keep believing

• "To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so." - Sir Walter Scott
• "What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are." - Anthony Robbins

Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you or your family Friends. I will always be happy and willing to help you any way I can.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please enjoy & cherish those precious families.

Kev

At What Cost?

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day on this beautiful Friday morning and that a great week is coming to a close for you. Kev is struggling this morning...ever have a morning where it feels like the sheets are holding you in bed, you can't open your eyes and it feels sooooo good to just lay there? Yeah, I had one of those morning!

I want to share a thought/perspective with you this morning and let it speak to your heart however it will. As I was having my bible & leadership study time this morning - have to get my heart right before sharing with my family and all of you! - I came across a quote that is a great guide for you and I this morning (heck, every morning for that matter!):
"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." - Friedrich Nietzche

A couple of weeks ago my Beautiful Bride and I had date night...I truly cherish those times with her. Time to be alone, to talk, to dream, to share. I don't remember how it all came up however I was telling her how I had heard/learned at some men's group that studies had found that the breakdown of the family began with the industrialization of the United States. They went on to explain that as jobs were created men began going further and further away from home for work. You see, many years ago, the whole family lived on their homestead together, worked the land together and the primary focus was on food, shelter and that was pretty much it. All throughout the day the family was together. There was no TV, computers, cell phones, cars, desire for some huge house - you and I wouldn't want huge homes either if we had to build them ourselves...with our hands! We were talking about this as we were buzzing down one of the hundreds of 3, 4 & 5 lane highways in a metropolitan area of more than 5 million people with glorious building rising everywhere; beautiful, bright flashing lights everywhere; all kinds of nice, fancy cars seemingly everywhere. As we talked about these things, things which by the way I am not saying are wrong in and of themselves, we talked about the cost(s) associated with gaining them. You see Friends, it is not the buildings, houses, cars, jobs, money, etc. that are bad. These things are not inherently bad. The question is, at what cost were these things attained?

After assuring my sweet, incredibly precious wife that I was not proposing that we sell our house, sell everything we have and move out into the country and establish a homestead somewhere - she was relieved! - we talked about what we truly value. Would we like to have a nice house? Would we like to have a nice car? Would we like to be able to go out to eat - I am not talking about spending in excess here - when we want without feeling the pains of financial strain? Sure, who doesn't? The bigger question though was at what cost? The bigger, bigger question is what do we truly value? As we talked we realized what we truly value is what we will live out in our lives. What makes something a sacrifice and what makes something just what you do to have, to do, what you want? Life is all about choices and consequences. You and I make choices and, for every choice we make there is a consequences. Therefore, while we own our choices it is really our choices that then take ownership of us as the consequences from those choices mold, make and shape the lives we live. A song was just on the radio with a verse that said, "this is your life, are you who you want to be?" Good timing...

So that is the point of this Happy Friday...to encourage you to determine in your heart what you truly value. Please know that you are going to live out your values - we all do - so we can save all the justifications, hidden agendas, trying to say the right thing, etc. You truly can list your values, perhaps you want to use the word priorities, #1 through whatever. I can assure you that whatever #1 is you are going to do everything in your power to make sure it is attained. Once progress is made, or at least we feel like it is being made, towards your #1 will you allow work to be done towards #2 and then #3 and then #4 and then...Spouse? Significant other? Son? Daughter? House? Car? Job? Title? Money? They all have a number. It is up to each and every one of us individually to determine it's number. Please be aware, that whatever number you choose to assign to each one, you are going to live with the consequences of those decisions. That is not intended to be a threatening statement...just keeping it real.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your families. I would truly be honored to help you any way I can.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and cherish those precious families.

Kev